Threat or Opportunity?
Our perception is crucial in deciding how we respond to life and business. Even savvy businessmen and women will succumb to their own perception, right or wrong, good or bad. How we see things will ultimately decide our response.
I have always been a huge proponent of experience. After all, experience often means someone has done something and had a measure of success, so they can probably do it again. That philosophy of success that worked great in times of stability, can be a severe hindrance during times of constant change and technological disruptions, such as we have today.
Regardless of company size, if that company continues down the same paths in times of change as it followed in times of stability, it will become non-relevant over time. The only question is, how long.
You can tell when a company is holding onto outdated processes and procedures when those processes and procedures no longer produce the outcomes that drive profits. This is not an overnight trend, but one that occurs over time. The handwriting is on the wall long before the fall, but key decisionmakers fail to take the necessary action. The question is, why?
The answer to this question is that experience is no longer the key to success. The new key to success is knowledge; and not knowledge for the sake of having knowledge. In this scenario, we are talking about knowledge that can be used to drive success in both old and new markets.
Experience is no longer the key to business success today. As a matter of fact, past experience just may be the direct cause of ultimate failure. If you do not believe this, ask the former leaders of Eastman Kodak who saw disruptive technology as an enemy to their past experience and success. They opted for experience over knowledge, and lost it all.
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